At the heart of the Romantic Movement is a human and his interaction with nature. Powerful and evocative, his spontaneous feelings are set in a metrical arrangement not in heroic couplets unlike in the Age of Enlightenment but in the language of men. Wordsworth and Coleridge defined Romantic poetry in the Lyrical Ballads in a soft and sonorous manner, but, it was Shelly’s radical intellect, use of powerful imagery, treatment of subject and mastery of genre that made him a trailblazer in Romantic poetry even though he didn’t enjoy much repute in his lifetime.
A radical and reformist, his lyrical gift was often superseded by his political, religious and ethical views. Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem; With Notes was published in 1813. Of the nine cantos with seventeen notes, six deal with the reform possible with mankind in adopting atheism, vegetarianism, republicanism and materialism. This work exemplifies Shelley’s idealism.
Perhaps, his lyrical gift finds a perfect manifestation in Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark and Adonias. Appealing to the sublime, exciting thoughts and emotions through imagination, Hellenism and subjectivity are some of the chief characteristics of Shelley’s poetic numbers. Through his poems especially in the Ode to the West Wind, the trope of ‘wind’ aimed at spreading winds of reform thus revolutionising the society. Donning the poet-prophet robes, Shelley is an allegory of change and revolution.
Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion and Hyperion written in the English tradition of Milton’s Lycidas is one of Shelley’s best-known works. Shelly calls on Urania to mourn Keats’ death in this pastoral elegy. Furthermore, the literary piece is imbued with melancholy, subjectivity and allusions to Greek art, literature and culture.
Shelley’s verse dramas include The Cenci, Prometheus Unbound, Hellas, Alastor or the Spirit of Solitude, Julian and Maddalo and others. Out of all, Prometheus Unbound set in the Romantic tradition resides in the imagination of the readers for its mystery, suspense and thrill. Prometheus was condemned to untold suffering lifelong and beyond for defying Gods and giving fire to humanity. Perhaps, Shelley draws a parallel with Prometheus in his struggle with religion.
In the opinion of Donald H. Reiman, “ Shelley belongs to the great tradition of Western writers that includes Dante, Shakespeare and Milton.” Even the American critic Harold Bloom assigns Shelley as “one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem.” Shelley influenced major poets in the following decade including Robert Browning, Swinburne, Yeats and Hardy.
IMAGE SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA